US suspends licenses to ship nuclear plant parts to China
The US in recent days suspended licenses for nuclear equipment suppliers to sell to China’s power plants, according to four people familiar with the matter, as the two countries engage in a damaging trade war.
The suspensions were sent to companies by the US Department of Commerce, the people said, and affect export licenses for parts and equipment used with nuclear power plants.
Nuclear equipment suppliers are among a wide range of companies whose sales have been restricted over the past two weeks as the US-China trade war shifted from negotiating tariffs to throttling each other’s supply chains. It is unclear whether a Thursday call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would affect the suspensions.
The US and China agreed on May 12 to roll back triple digit, tit-for-tat tariffs for 90 days, but the truce between the two biggest economies quickly went south.
The US claimed China reneged on terms related to rare earth elements. China accused the US of “abusing export control measures” by warning that using Huawei Ascend AI chips anywhere in the world violated US export controls.
On Friday, Trump said US and Chinese officials would meet again on June 9.
The US Department of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment on the nuclear equipment restrictions. On May 28, a spokesperson said the department was reviewing exports of strategic significance to China.
“In some cases, Commerce has suspended existing export licenses or imposed additional license requirements while the review is pending,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Big dent on business
US nuclear equipment suppliers include Westinghouse and Emerson.
Westinghouse, whose technology is used in over 400 nuclear reactors around the world, did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did Emerson, which provides measurement and other tools for the nuclear industry.
The suspensions affect business worth hundreds of millions of dollars, two of the sources said.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Xi emphasized on his call with Trump that both sides should make good on the agreement reached in Geneva on May 12. China has been “earnestly” executing the agreement, the spokesperson, Liu Pengyu, said in a statement on Friday.
“The US side should acknowledge the progress already made, and remove the negative measures taken against China,” the statement said. China’s rare earth export controls are in line with common practice and not targeted at specific countries, it added.
